Here in Southern California, our parks recently opened two major new live shows. We've already reviewed Disneyland's Mickey and the Magical Map and SeaWorld San Diego's Madagascar Live! Operation Vacation, when it opened at sister park Busch Gardens Tampa last month. But over the past couple weeks, I got my first opportunity to see these shows.
Each of these shows runs 20 minutes, making them a great way to get off your feet and out of the sun for an enjoyable extended break in the middle of the day. Mickey and the Magical Map plays in the outdoor (but covered and shady) Fantasyland Theater in Disneyland, while Madagascar Live plays in the indoor (and air conditioned) Mission Bay Theater at SeaWorld San Diego.
But if you're paying theme park prices for a day's entertainment you want more than a cool place to sit for 20 minutes. Both shows deliver that entertainment value with energetic casts performing popular songs from their source material, as well as an original tune created just for its show. Another plus? While it's worth showing up 20-30 minutes early to ensure getting seats together for each performance, neither of these shows will subject you to an hour-plus wait, as you might find at many popular rides this summer.
If there's a knock to be made against these shows, it's that their premises are whispy-wafer-thin — just flimsy excuses to get to the music. But with a 20-minute show time, I'd prefer less set-up and more time for singing and dancing anyway. (If you want more plot and dialogue in a Southern California theme park show, take in a performance of Aladdin at Disney California Adventure.)
There's no faulting these casts, though, at least not at the performances I watched (and recorded for your enjoyment). The vocalists, dancers and instrumentalists bring it, entertaining the audience with fun songs you'll have playing over and over again in your head for the rest of the day.
Follow the links below to rate and review these shows, if you've seen them already. Or just leave a thought in the comments.
Madagascar Live! Operation Vacation:
If you're looking for an even cooler entertainment experience in a Southern California theme park, Knott's Berry Farm also just debuted its newest Peanuts-themed ice show. But I haven't had the chance to see it yet — comments about that show are welcomed, too.
What are some of your favorite live shows at theme parks?
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We caught the Snoopy ice show at Knott's on the passholder preview day. It was a fun summer show. We've only seen the Snoopy holiday ice show in the past -- this one is more sexy (but still okay for kids) and not as unified in theme. Still, the sets, music, and skating are all top-notch.
Even more fun at Knott's was Boomtown, their Old West version of cirque acrobats, new this summer. A 20 to 30 minute version of a Cirque du Soleil show with gags, a loose story, and impressive acrobatics. Not for people who hate cirque shows, but a nice condensed version themed to its Ghost Town location.
I quite enjoyed the "Mickey and the Magical Map" show. The musical numbers were very good, but the story portion featuring Mickey Mouse is rather tedious. The painting of the "dot" became the main trust of the story. There was nothing magical about this storyline. Nonetheless, when I saw it, there was a technical glitch that delayed the show for 5 minutes.
Aladdin is still the best theme park show. Knott's ice skating show is the second best. Sea World's cirque show is good, but I prefer the dolphin show as the best show at Sea World San Diego. The Samu evening show with fireworks is better than the daytime show.
The bugs didn't seem worked out in early June, though. I saw it three times over the course of about a week, and the first time the show took a ten-minute delay when a prop was not in place on stage for Mickey--it seemed like the production was figuring out the right place to synch the audio and video around the point where the show had stopped.
The third time I saw the show, the screen had been showing a weird computer message off and on during the show. With about ten minutes remaining, the production came to a stop. After the audience waited for 5 or 10 minutes, the P.A. came back on and said the rest of the show had been cancelled.
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